MR. GLADSTONE IN HIS STUDY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 105, 1 May 1875, Page 14

MR. GLADSTONE IN HIS STUDY.

Me. Gladstone, it appears, is not yet satisfied with his religious views. He is determined to pursue his theological studies still further. May God, in His mercy, grant him grace to Bee the truth and courage to embrace it. H would not be the first -who has sat down to study the Catholic religion with a view to confirm his objections to it, and who has risen at last fully persuaded of its truth. Dr. Newman is an instance in point among many others. But even a more striking instance of the same thing is the following, as related in a recent number of the ' Weekly Register ": — " Among the recent receptions at the "Vatican, was one full of consolation to the Holy Father in the midst of his afflictions, which he experiences from the persecution of the Church in Germany. A German, well known in the literary world, who has recently become a "convert," on laying at the feet of the Pontiffs considerable sum, as a personal offering of Peter's pence, reminded His Holiness of an interesting I incident. In 1856 this gentleman, who was travelling in Italy, and I who, at that time, manifested great hostility to the Church, had

occasion to seek an interview with the Holy Father. As if foreseeing the designs of Providence upon his non-sympathetic visitor, the Pope, in according him his parting blessing, addressed him in tliese significant words : ' May this blessing open your heart to the influence of .grace, and pray to God that he may one day make the truth known to you.' " After that, who will say that Mr. Gladstone's is a hopeless case? He, too, like this German convert, is well known to the literary world. He is now engaged on " Homer," as well as the ancient Fathers. He may yet take it into his head to visit His Holiness, when, no doubt, the Pope, in giving him a parting blessing, would pray God to open his heart to the influence of grace, **J!flid to make the truth known to him. Mr. Gladstone, in spite of his " pamphlets," is no enemy, but a warm friend of Catholics. His hostility to their principles is founded on misapprehension, and may yet be converted into approval. The Catholics of the United Kingdom owe him a debt of gratitude for past services which they will not soon repay. His present position is altogether anomalous and inconsistent. He merits the respectful sympathy rather than the hostility of Catholics, in my opinion. What he has written against their principles, he has no doubt written from a high sense of duty agreeable to his present lights, and from the purest of motives. The Almighty has endowed him with a Herculean intellect, a fine and penetrating genius, and a generous and religious heart. For my part, so far from regarding him with anger or indignation on account of what he has lately written, I look upon him with compassion and a lively hope that God will yet open his heart to receive the truth. Were the Church to make a conquest of him, it would be a victory indeed. But for him and his party, the Catholics of Great Britain would probably never have got one penny of public money for their schools — under the new Education Act. He has declared that no system of public education deserves support which does not make some provision for the religious upbringing of the youth of the country ; and he has resisted every attempt to deprive religious schools of that scanty measure of Government aid which they now enjoy. It would be a fortunate circumstance for us if the so-called liberal party in this colony were actuated by his just, generous, and religious spirit. Then we I should get—if not a full measure — at least a considerable amount of justice to our schools. But other principles than his prevail here, for the present. Religion reserves but little countenance from the Government, the press, or the tyrant majority who rule tis. The day may come, and not be far off, when the people of New Zealand shall see, however reluctantly, the baneful fruit of so godless a system ; fruit such as is seen in America, where the people have long been placed under a purely secular educational training. In that great country we see political, and therefore social morality at the lowest possible ebb ; men glorying in their shame ; concerting gigantic schemes of dishonesty in the most barefaced and systematic way. There Government is an efficient instrument of public corruption. We, ought, all of us, to pray daily for the conversion of such men as Mr. Gladstone. Pride will be the stumbling-block in his path, if he die out of the Church.